The Rise of the Home Recording Studio in Metro Manila
Robin Daniel Z. Rivera
15 March 2005
Philippine Studies 229
Dr. Seraphin Talisayon
INTRODUCTION
In the early 1970's the disparity between professional and consumer level audio recording technology was at an all-time high. First, the cost of professional recording equipment was out of reach by most lay people. At that time, a professional 8-track multi-track recorder, just one of the necessary components of a state of the art studio, cost about US$ 10,000.00. This hefty price tag bought you superior operating specifications, and bullet-proof reliability. While most consumer-level electronics were expected to render only a few hours of entertainment a day, professional equipment could be run practically 24/7 with minimal downtime within a specified length of time, usually in the tens of thousands of hours. The stratospheric price could be traced to the use of the military-grade materials, and the highest manufacturing tolerances.
Second, professional equipment differed from their consumer counterparts not only in durability, but in capabilities as well. One example of a function not available to consumers was “Simul-Sync” or “Multi-Track Recording”. In this system, an ensemble performance was not done with all instruments playing at once. Each instrument/voice could be recorded in complete isolation, on a separate “track” on the tape recorder. Subsequent instruments/voices could be added at another time, while listening to what had been recorded earlier to guarantee synchronization among the instruments/voices. One 2-inch wide tape could contain as many as twenty-four tracks (in some cases even thirty-two). In some extreme cases, two or more machines could be electronically synchronized to multiply the number of tracks. After all instruments/ voices were recorded, they were then combined, or “mixed” into the final form, in either mono (one channel), or stereo (two channels) for release on vinyl discs or tape. Recorders of this sort were not only prohibitively expensive, but large as well.
Third, since most instruments were acoustic in nature, a studio required an acoustically sealed room to record in. Each sound, and or performance had to be recorded in isolation so that extraneous sounds could be minimized or eliminated. Recording studios also required a large amount of space. Equipment was not only heavy but large as well. Control rooms needed to accommodate several large pieces of equipment. Mixing consoles alone, for example, could weigh hundreds of pounds, and measure up to eight meters wide. Large recording rooms were also desired to house several musicians at once. Just one room of this type of structure could cost more than an entire residential house because of the space requirements, massive structural reinforcement and air-conditioning needed.
Fourth, the equipment and structure required a high level of maintenance. Many major parts for the equipment and the structure were proprietary, and had to be ordered directly from the factory. This made maintenance a costly and time-consuming effort.
Fifth, it required specialized expertise in both operation and maintenance. Few, if any, schools in the Philippines offered specific training in audio engineering, a field that required a combination of electronics, acoustics, architecture, and music.
But there are other, non-instrumental reasons for the lack of home recording activities and facilities in the early 20th century. Formal musical ensemble performances needed large spaces such as town plazas, cathedrals, and concert halls. Even the so-called “chamber” or “ salon” music of the 18th and 19th century Europe was practiced in large mansions and castles belonging to the political and economic elite. In the Philippines, “tertullias” were common only among the landed gentry with large “bahay-na-bato” that could fit not only the musicians and instruments, but the party-going audience as well. The most that most working musicians could do at home was practice, and even this was often times problematic because the sound produced by the repetitive practice and drills with musical instruments could be construed by neighbors as meaningless noise. Since musical recording was considered a type of formal music performance, it was not conceivable to conduct in the home of a typical working musician.
But by the 1970's, the landscape began to change. A number of technological innovations would drastically bring the prohibitive cost of setting up a studio down to “affordable” levels. Recording equipment became cheaper, smaller, and easier to maintain. And the growing popularity of electric and electronic musical instruments minimized the need for large recording rooms. Then there was a blurring of the lines between the workplace and the home. Small-scale home-based “cottage industries” entered the realm of formal business paradigms, specially in developing nations like the Philippines. These changes resulted in the emergence of the “home studio”.
This paper will examine one example in the development of the home studio in the Philippines, and how it changed the landscape of the recording industry.
KEY TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS AND PROCESSES
In 1979, the TEAC Corporation introduced the TASCAM 144 PORTASTUDIO. While the technical operating specifications were modest, This groundbreaking device contained a four-track simul-sync recorder and mixer, and used inexpensive cassette tapes, at a suggested retail price of US$ 1,100.00. And except for major parts like the tape heads, many of the spare parts could be bought in local electronic supply stores. This became the core device for what was to be affectionately dubbed as the “home studio” (and in some cases the “bedroom studio”). This directly benefitted at least two types of production workers. First to take advantage of these were working musicians. These musicians could now produce study tapes and “demo” recordings, as well as low cost commercial jingles (since radio jingles did not always need the high technical standards demanded by commercial records) by themselves, without having to rent time in state-of-the-art studios. And since by then many popular musical instruments were electric or electronic (electric guitars, electronic keyboards, drum machines, etc.), they could feed the output of the instrument directly to the input of the Portastudio, thus minimizing the need for a dedicated recording room. They were also relatively easy to operate. Much of the basic controls resembled consumer tape machines. More advanced features were simplified versions of professional tape recorders. Since many of the musicians who bought Portastudios had experience in recording studios and had seen professional equipment in action, the learning curve was not too steep. This was also a boon for those making Audio-Visual Presentations (AVPs) whose needs were not as elaborate as musicians, but needed the flexibility of simul-sync in order to control the balance of narration, music, and sound effects in a presentation. It is claimed that over one million TASCAM Portastudios (of various incarnations) have been sold since 1979. Several other companies released their own versions of the Portastudio, such as Fostex, Audio-Technica, Sansui, and Kenwood. The competition between these companies resulted in even cheaper and smaller units.
The second major innovation was MIDI. In 1983, a consortium of electronic musical instrument companies published a standard for data transmission that would allow automated control, performance, and storage between digital music instruments and computers. This enabled musicians to compose, orchestrate and edit their work on a computer-based device known as a sequencer, and then perform the work by having the sequencer activate the corresponding digital instrument(s). The most popular digital instruments of the day, synthesizers and samplers, had the capabilities of mimicking acoustic instruments. In many cases, this bypassed having to record many acoustic instruments via microphones, and in so doing, minimized the need to construct expensive acoustically controlled studios. This also minimized the need to hire large ensembles of players, as only one musician was needed to input the data of a work. The home studio had become the norm, and at one point threatened the existence of established recording studios. The only change was that some musician/producers moved out of their bedrooms, and into the living room or a vacant guest room to house the growing number of devices.
The latest technological development is computer-based non-linear recording systems. Traditional tape-based analog recording may have allowed a musician/producer to add as many parts or tracks as could be accommodated in a multi-track tape. But once a performance was recorded on that tape, it took a complex procedure of technological gymnastics to shift the position and timing of one or more tracks in time. The personal computer changed all of that. By the 1990's, even modest personal computers could now record acoustic sounds using a microphone, and store it as digital data. So not only can a personal computer store and manipulate MIDI data, it can now do the same for digitally recorded sound. Software applications that could exploit this capability also appeared at a price that many musician/producers could afford. Today’s personal computers even have integrated music intruments such as synthesizers. So the computer-based home studio is now also called the “virtual” studio because music can be created without any sound from the “physical” world.
Many current popular recordings are now a result of hybrid production methods. Basic and/or virtual tracks can be created in artists’ home studios. This allows the artist to do work in comfortable surroundings, and with minimal time pressure. These basic tracks are then “laid-back” or transferred to professional studios for acoustic recording, refinement and post-production. This ensures the high technical quality demanded by commercial recording.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HOME STUDIO
As the cost of audio recording equipment went down in the 1980's, more and more musicians entered into the home studio fray. The period immediately following the EDSA uprising in 1986 saw a wealth of opportunities and spending in the entertainment and advertising industries, and Philippine musicians not about to let this opportunity slip by. Eager to get a piece of growing advertising and promotional budgets, some enterprising musicians put up low-cost home studios so they could lower their productions costs by not having to rent expensive professional studio time. As profits accumulated , “gear lust” (the desire to acquire an inordinate amount equipment beyond those necessarily needed for basic tasks) resulted in a situation wherein the capabilities of home studios outgrew the personal needs of these musicians. The next evolutionary step was that many home studio owners began to offer their facilities to others for a fee. This added another source of income for the owner, on top of his/her own personal recording projects. While some moved out of their homes into existing commercial spaces such as warehouses and office condominiums, others did not move the studio outside of their homes, retaining the warmth and charm of a home environment. It was not uncommon for owners’ family members to develop close relationships with clients.
But for every home studio that successfully morphs into a commercial studio, a new home studio is born. A second wave of musicians’ home studios was about to provide solutions for a new set of music industry challenges. The Asian financial crisis of the late 1990's, coupled with the menace of media piracy, dealt the Philippine recording industry a serious blow. Rock and pop bands were the hardest hit by these reductions. After their heyday in the 1990's, their popularity had begun to wane by the year 2000. Because of this, production budgets for local band recordings shrank dramatically. The response of this still relatively young generation of musicians was to set up home studios so that they could record music without record company support, and market their recordings independently. Their home studios were made out from a wealth of equipment that band musicians had acquired in the course of their short but still hyperactive-active careers. The relatively high quality of these recordings were a testament to the availability, and affordability of computer music systems. These “indy” recordings provided some kind of relief for record companies because, for the time being, they no longer had to fund the recording of new artists. By the time record companies started signing up new artists, these existing “indy” recordings had already given the artists a small but loyal following. Building on these foundations, record companies ended up either just buying the rights to these home made recordings outright, or entering into distribution agreements. It is not an exaggeration to say that without home studios, the band scene in the Philippines might not have thrived as it continues to do today.
Modern popular music recordings demand not only an ever-increasing level of technical standards, but greater complexity in production strategies as well. In spite of the fact that the music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, it depends as much on marginal, “alternative” artists as it does on big-name marque stars to cater to its diverse market. In the same way, the synergy between the professional studio and the home studio must exist to maintain cost-effectiveness and efficiency.
CASE STUDY: EJL RECORDING
One example of a home studio is EJL Recording Inc. In 1985, Eric Lava was living in a one-bedroom flat in his family compound at 6 Manigo St. In U.P. Village. Some musician friends, such as Juan Miguel Salvador of the then popular Rage band, asked if they could use his living room to work on recording demo and study tapes, because they had no private space in their own homes. In addition to the space, Eric also made available his keyboard synthesizer, a power amplifier and speakers. His friends brought in a small portable 4-track recorder and other equipment. Lava said he stayed up many nights watching and learning from them how recordings were done. Shortly after, he bought the 4-track recorder from Salvador, and started renting out the equipment and space.
Later in 1985, I was approached by Eric Lava to help put together a recording system to be used in a low-budget recording project for Greg Caro and the U.P. Samaskom. I also had small home studios of my own, which satisfied my personal needs. But this particular project needed a system that neither of us could supply by ourselves, hence a combination of our resources became the viable option. So we fused our equipment, and shared operating chores for the duration of the project. My equipment included a 6-channel mixer, a power amplifier, a keyboard synthesizer, and a pair of dynamic microphones. Lava’s contribution was another keyboard synthesizer, guitars, and monitor speakers. We also borrowed a drum machine from Salvador, and another keyboard synthesizer from a friend of the client, Greg Caro.
While the project was exciting, it was not without a host of problems inherent with recording in a home. One of the main problems was the lack of acoustic isolation. Much of the work was done outside of office hours, often into the late evening and early morning. The sound of the system could be heard not only outside the flat, but in the main house of the compound. Other family members in the main house complained about the sound in the late hours, and at one point threatened to shut down our operations. On the other hand, turning down the loudness made monitoring difficult because we could not accurately hear soft musical passages. Conversely, outside noises such as rain , car horns, doorbells and barking dogs would interrupt vocal recordings. Another problem was the lack of air-conditioning. Both we and the client would get uncomfortable during the mid-day heat. Still another problem was electrically induced. The lack of power line conditioning and proper grounding made the electrical current unstable. Florescent light fixtures and refrigerators easily introduced unpredictable hum and spikes into the recording equipment. These factors necessitated a myriad of compromises and remedies. In spite of these problems, we managed to complete the project in about a week, and the payment was divided between the two of us.
Upon the completion of the project, Lava asked me if I wanted to continue renting out our fused system and services commercially. He had apparently been dared by one client to turn the otherwise informal activity in to his primary business. I declined because I had already committed to a full-time career in teaching. But Lava became more and more enamored with the idea of putting up a full-blown studio. Several projects followed, still mostly demos and low budget recordings. There was a healthy market for a small, home based studio with low hourly rates and an informal ambience. Although the studio was not registered with the SEC, he opened a bank account under the name “Offline Audio”, which still exists today. In 1987, Lava took out a small loan from his father to purchase some needed equipment. He single-handedly handled the marketing, business, and technical operations of the studio. In the start, most of his clients were friends and acquaintances within a small circle of musician-friends. He also began taking on clients from the fields of advertising.
In 1987, Eric and a couple of college friends in the media industry “gatecrashed” the Advertising Congress in Baguio City. While the main objective was to make search for new clients, he met an old acquaintance, Anabel Marasigan, who was then the Advertising Director of Trebel Corporation. Back in Manila, Anabel asked Eric to participate in a large project to develop “minus-one” tapes for Trebel. Apparently, the Trebel president had set up a studio in his house to make the recordings, but noone in the company could run it. Also, the project entailed so much work, that Trebel needed to subcontract half of the work. So Eric simultaneously served as the technical consultant for the project, and a subcontractor using his own studio.
During this flurry of work and studio development, Eric married Anabel Marasigan on 28 May 1988. She resigned from Trebel, and was promptly appointed as the business and marketing manager of the Eric’s fledgling studio. She brought her own personal and professional network of clients and subcontractors, as her managerial experience to the mix. Eric got a another loan from his father (about PhP 50,000.00) so that he could buy equipment similar to that which Trebel had. The couple traveled to Hong Kong several times that year to purchase the equipment.
By the end of the year, the studio had expanded their clients to include several local advertising agencies. Eric relates how advertising had become the boom industry of the time. The established Makati-based studios were so inundated with clients that work was literally “spilling out” to smaller studios like his in Quezon City. At this point, the couple undertook yet another expansion by the constructing an acoustically controlled studio adjacent to the flat, and converting the living room into an office/reception area. This was because the projects they were working on demanded a higher level of acoustic isolation, and the couple wanted to add more privacy to their living environment. They also took in additional staff because of the increased workload.
But Eric sensed that the boom would not last forever. He decided to expand his services from merely equipment based, to include creative work. This was so that the money that would usually be spent on hiring a composer/arranger for a production could now go to him, and the company. Although he was a performing musician, he lacked experience in these areas. So he embarked on a process of self-study in musical theory. He was able to convince Anabel to give him compositional and arranging work within company produced projects. This eventually paid off when advertising budgets started contracting, and projects became less frequent. As time went by, more and more components of projects could be done in-house.
The next expansion in 1994 converted the couple’s bedroom into a vocal and post-production studio. This saw the addition of a pre-fabricated vocal booth, and their first computer, an Apple PowerMacintosh running Logic Audio software. The couple moved out of the flat, but into the main house of the complex. Thus the family’s presence in the studio was retained.
In 1998, the company negotiated to record the musical soundtrack for what was to be the movie “Rizal” produced by GMA Films. In preparation for this, EJL purchased more equipment, focused around another Apple PowerMacintosh running a Pro-Tools recording system. The decision to go for a computer based system over an upgrade of their analog tape-based system had to do with maintenance. For example, analog tape machine heads deteriorate every time tape passes over them, much like sandpaper on a metal surface. This is not too much of an issue with consumer tape machines that are only used sporadically. But in a professional recording studio, which pulls thousands of feet of tape for 20 hours a day, the deterioration can be rather fast. Add to this the fact that replacement heads are available only from the manufacturer, either in Japan or the U.S.A. This makes analog tape maintenance an expensive proposition. On the other hand, the main component that wears out in a personal computer is the hard disk. Hard disks can easily be bought in most local computer shops, and at a cost much lower than a proprietary analog tape head. So in the long-term, a computer is cheaper to operate than an analog tape machine. There are a host of other advantages for digital systems, such as lower noise levels, non-linear editing, and non-destructive recording among others. This is not to say that analog tape systems don’t have their own share of strengths. But these apply to more esoteric recording situations than in mainstream commercial projects. This move paid off, not just because the success of the movie. A growing number of clients had begun to experience the flexibility of digital systems, and were starting to prefer it for their projects. The shift to digital was timely because only a few other studios had switched yet.
Given the computer-based technologies of EJL, IT technologies opened new opportunities for the company. EJL’s Quezon City location may be geographically close to most of the major advertising agencies in Makati and San Juan, but inconveniently remote due to traffic. So in cases where time is of the essence, EJL often sends audio files back and forth to clients via e-mail. The same is also true for clients coming from other regions in the Philippines. EJL can do location recording in the clients’ hometown, return to Quezon City for post-production, then e-mail the final recordings back to the client.
While most of EJL’s clients have been locals, a few have come from other countries. Since the 1990's, many have been visiting foreigners who needed a studio for the duration of their stay. Their projects included recording indigenous Philippine musicians and performances, audio foreign-language tapes, and demos for songs destined for the international market. Lava is still surprised by the fact that the main reason they found EJL was simply due to his placement in the PLDT Yellow Pages. But some recent projects were landed from EJL’s presence on the internet. Lava is an active member of KATHA (Katipunan ng mga May-Akdang Taal na Himig at Awit), and is subscribed to the organization’s e-group. The most recent project which resulted from this association with KATHA involved production music for a corporate presentation of the CITICORP Asia regional headquarters in Singapore. The entire project was run electronically via the internet. First, negotiations were made via e-mail. Demos, as well as the final version of the music were sent via the internet on MP3 format. The payment was made via an electronic bank-to-bank transaction.
In 2002, EJL began construction of a new home/studio complex in Teachers Village, Quezon City. Construction was completed in early-2003, and operations began shortly after. The compound had two main structures. The front structure contained the studio complex, with two audio control rooms, one large studio floor, a vocal booth, two post production rooms, a reception area, and offices. The rear structure contained a four-bedroom home. A major upheaval occurred with Anabel Lava’s sudden untimely death in December 2003. A reorganization followed, with Eric Lava once more having to run the company single-handedly.
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Home studios are usually established for three major reasons, all of which contrast with the dedicated commercial studio. First it provides a cost-effective facility where musicians can create preparatory/experimental/demo recordings. Second, it is a low-cost alternative when the technical requirements are not too demanding or critical. Lastly, the home environment lends a cozy atmosphere for the owner/musician. But as the home studio expands, it has to approached as a business because of the escalating costs of maintenance and the need for equipment acquisitions. At this point, the owner is confronted by a crossroad. Continued expansion often leads to relocation outside of the home environment due to the need for separating the privacy of domestic life, and public nature of business activities. The facility therefore ceases to be a home studio in the strictest sense, and loses at least one of its main appealing characteristics. On the other hand, a precious few home studios manage a delicate balancing act. They must somehow retain the casual and comfortable nature of the home, but impose the formality and discipline needed by business transactions.
EJL has managed to achieve the latter successfully. It has taken full advantage of the tools and processes that has been made available in this interesting age of low to medium priced recording equipment. It first utilized semi-professional equipment, then MIDI, then Computer-based audio and information systems, at the right moment when the costs benefitted not only the company, but the clients as well. It also projected the company as a home-based organization by not only maintaining the studio and home in the same complex, but by involving members of the nuclear and extended Lava family in capitalization and operations. In short, it has blended the exploitation of tools and processes, the conventional discipline of business, and the organizational comfort of the home.
SOURCES:
______. “Tascam Company History”. (12 March 2005).
Jones, Roger Bishop . “MIDI History”. (12 March 2005).
Eric Lava, Interview by Robin Daniel Z. Rivera. 29 December 2004.
